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A house 3D printed from raw earth

itsnicethat.com

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Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#51
Yet another example of the over-hype of “3D Printing”. Yes it’s neat that they collected some local dirt, mixed it with some non-locally sourced water and binder, and poured it into an extruder run on some kind of non locally sourced energy, then sprayed it with some protective coating - it baffles me that people see this as a possible mainstream building technique. Running electrical, plumbing, air conditioning etc through this structure is doable but much harder, as the expectations of these niceties have evolved with modern construction and need easy access and hiding with things like dry wall.

This almost reads as an onion article with the headline “brilliant scientists figure out how to overcomplicate the construction of mud huts similar to our earliest human ancestors”.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#53

To really solve the housing crisis we'll need to use this device to print some affordable land first.

There is plenty of land, just not in desirable locations. But if you could build infrastructure easily and with speed, maybe those locations can be transformed too.

Up until last 40 years ago people didn't want to live on the ocean. Now they can't get enough. US has a huge swaths of land empty, especially in the Pacific Northwest.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#54

I hope 3D printing homes will take off now that lumber prices are so ridiculous. The sudden cost increases in other materials will now hopefully give 3d printing space to achieve economies of scale. Imagine homes that are printed with a 20 year life expectancy. Especially in America where I don't know many families that remain in the same house for 20 years. We could start going to the Japanese model of razing the ho…

I think that's the first time I've heard of someone considering the Japanese home ownership model aspirational. Isn't that also where the 100 year mortgage idea started?

I'd rather see that we built really solid houses that are fundamentally designed for ease of renovation, rather than routinely raze and rebuild from scratch. Code improves over time but not on a timescale that makes 20-year rebuilds sensible.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#55

I hope 3D printing homes will take off now that lumber prices are so ridiculous. The sudden cost increases in other materials will now hopefully give 3d printing space to achieve economies of scale. Imagine homes that are printed with a 20 year life expectancy. Especially in America where I don't know many families that remain in the same house for 20 years. We could start going to the Japanese model of razing the ho…

I mean, this is the same technology used to make....... bricks.

We used to make homes out of bricks, and we could do that again, now that lumber is expensive.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#56
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

they show you the kitchen and a shot of the bathroom sink in these pictures, actually. it's just so minimalist that it's not that obvious. not quite to my taste but that's in part because they just want to show off the building itself. really, though, you can finish them like any other house; there's nothing special about the kitchen, bathroom, or walls that precludes it. aside from the striping, i imagine there's no…

What about plumbing and water resistance to humidity in the bathroom?

The problem is the same irrespective of how the house is built. You need holes for pipes and holes for an extractor fan. The bonus here is that 3D printed surfaces mean you don’t need to drill out material to make the holes.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#57

Yet another example of the over-hype of “3D Printing”. Yes it’s neat that they collected some local dirt, mixed it with some non-locally sourced water and binder, and poured it into an extruder run on some kind of non locally sourced energy, then sprayed it with some protective coating - it baffles me that people see this as a possible mainstream building technique. Running electrical, plumbing, air conditioning etc…

And this technique really wouldn’t work well in impoverished places where people need shelter. It works well when there’s a lot of local technology but not a lot of labor, precisely the opposite working conditions in much of Africa.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The collaboration between MC A and WASP has been supported by Mapei, a worldwide producer of construction materials, which has studied the clay materials and identified the key components within the raw earth mixture to create the final highly optimised printable product. https://www.3dwasp.com/en/3d-printed-house-tecla/ I think its safe to assume that the raw clay has been processed into a material more suitable f…

It says that it's been optimized to be printable, not for longevity or other characteristics needed in construction. What are the tradeoffs?

I would imagine if this house isn’t strong then future designs would be. Bricks and coffee mugs are also made out of clay so it’s not like we don’t already have a long history of experience working with the substance to create durable materials.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#59
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, it's going to have to switch to a subscription model eventually to continue to exist?

In my country, some poor people (unfortunately) live in mud houses. They periodically add a new layer of mud, as the old layers get eroded away. I imagine, this could be done by a robot for this 3D structure. Of course, this depends on house not collapsing under heavy rain.

Creative Ground.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#60

Yet another example of the over-hype of “3D Printing”. Yes it’s neat that they collected some local dirt, mixed it with some non-locally sourced water and binder, and poured it into an extruder run on some kind of non locally sourced energy, then sprayed it with some protective coating - it baffles me that people see this as a possible mainstream building technique. Running electrical, plumbing, air conditioning etc…

Exactly. God knows how many concepts I've seen for mixing local soils with magic powder and (typically) forming up walls. I do like that these guys could make rather free-form structures, but building an envelope is straightforward and runs into the issues of actually using the thing (seismic&water issues, installation of utilities, insulation, HVAC, longevity, insurance).

It's pretty hard to beat traditional methods and anything new typically has to be measurably quite a lot better.

If a person wanted to drive down costs, I'd probably tend more towards larger prefab components.

Maybe it's not so different from software in these areas.

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